CANADA: Pipeline Gamble

Canada's most violent political storm in two
decades blew itself out last week. Three weeks of bitter debate, marked
by some of the wildest scenes ever witnessed in the staid Canadian
Parliament, ended with the passage of the government's natural-gas
pipeline bill (TIME, May 21) just six hours before the deadline for
starting work on the project this year.

Under the bill's terms, the Canadian government will lend up to $80
million to the U.S.-controlled Trans-Canada Pipe Lines Ltd. to launch
one of the biggest and riskiest construction projects ever undertaken
in Canada. The company will begin building the world's...